Obama Humiliates Trump's New Communications Director

Last Friday, the news that White House press secretary Sean Spicer had resigned sent some tremors through the nation’s capital. However, that news would quickly become nothing more than an aside. New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci made his first appearance in the press briefing room soon thereafter, and he absolutely knocked it out of the park. Scaramucci came across as tough, personable and fair in his appearance, and that’s not an easy trick to pull off.

He would follow that up by making the talk show rounds over the weekend, and it’s become quite clear that there’s a new sheriff in town when it comes to the White House’s messaging team. While Spicer is generally regarded as a fantastic soldier that did what he could with the hand he was dealt, there were many times that he appeared to be in over his head. The smooth-talking Scaramucci certainly provides an interesting contrast to that, and optimism is high on the Right that the White House may actually be able to deliver a coherent message as we move forward.

As Yahoo shares, there has been plenty of digging around on the new communications director’s background, and one item that popped up has been gaining some traction. Back in 2010, Scaramucci asked former President Barack Obama a question during an event that was televised on CNBC. Scaramucci was running the investment firm Skybridge Capital, and he had a question that was on the mind of the deep pockets on Wall Street.

“This is something a lot of my friends are thinking about. I represent the Wall Street community. We have felt like a piñata. Maybe you don’t feel like you’ve been whacking us with a stick, but we certainly feel like we’ve been whacked with a stick,” he said. “I certainly think that Main Street and Wall Street are connected. And if we’re going to heal the society and make the economy better, how are we going to work towards that, healing Wall Street and Main Street? When are we going to stop whacking at the Wall Street piñata?”

Obama started off by offering up a sympathetic ear, but he would quickly pivot away to talking points that sell well on Main Street.

“We need a vibrant, vital financial sector that is investing in businesses, investing in jobs, investing in our people, providing consumers loans so they can buy products,” he said. “All that’s very important, and we want that to thrive. But we’ve got to do so in a responsible way.”

Obama would go on to explain that the perception that he was hard on Wall Street was overblown.

“It’s a two-way street. If you’re making a billion dollars a year after a very bad financial crisis where 8 million people lost their jobs and small businesses can’t get loans, then I think that you shouldn’t be feeling put upon,” Obama added. “The question should be, how can we continue to work with you to continue to grow the economy?”

That’s certainly fair, but hindsight tells us that Obama’s commentary should’ve been taken with a huge grain of salt. He’s had zero problem taking Wall Street money to deliver a high-priced speaking gig, so inferences that he’s some kind of voice for the ‘little man’ are pretty laughable.

As for Scaramucci, that’s where his perspective was at the time based on his role in the private sector. He would be wise to temper those thoughts now that he has a new job title.